Email Mistakenly Sent to All @lclark.edu Users

April 01, 2016

At 12:33 p.m. on Friday afternoon, a message was accidentally sent to all @lclark.edu email users. This included current students, recent alumni, faculty and staff.

The withdrawal-process Google Group is used to inform the various student support offices around campus when a student is expressing a desire to withdraw. One office completes a form that initiates an email that is sent to the other offices. This sharing of information streamlines the process for the student.

While updating the membership of this Google Group last month, an erroneous character was accidentally added as a user. When the withdrawal process was used earlier today, this mistaken character translated to email being sent to everyone with an @lclark.edu address. People were confused when they received the email, which then resulted in a flurry of replies to all.

Information Technology apologizes for this incident and will explore ways to safeguard from it occurring again.